How To Determine Wedding Package Prices As A Zazzi

One of the things photographers love most about the Zazzi App is the ability to set specific prices for specific types of photography services. As every photographer knows, the work required for an hour of wedding photography far exceeds the amount of work required for an hour of professional headshots. One of the reasons for this is the sentimental and emotional value of the photos and the desire of the wedding party to have every moment and every detail captured. You won’t likely find someone as emotionally involved in their professional business photos. You’ll want to consider this as you determine wedding package prices as a Zazzi.

The Zazzi app makes it easy to account for this. As you set up your photography profile, you can set different prices for each type of photography based on an hourly rate. If wedding photography is one of the services you offer, you might be a bit confused about how to set an hourly rate when you are used to working with package prices. We’ll get to that in a bit, but first let’s cover a few of the basics that will help you know what to charge as a wedding photographer. Once you’ve determined all that’s included in your wedding package and how much time is involved, you’ll be able to use that information to set an hourly price.  

Here’s how to determine wedding package prices:

Determine Your Experience

According to weddingwire.com, the average cost of a wedding photographer can vary between $1,150 and $3,000, with the average wedding photographer cost ringing in at around $2,000.

Your individual pricing will be heavily determined by your experience. Photographers who have only done one or two wedding sessions (or none at all) should start at the lowest end of the spectrum. Those who have several weddings under their belt can charge more because they have the experience to know specific special shots to get, where things can go wrong, how to manage the large number of photos that happen before a reception and so much more. 

It’s important to take a hard look at your experience level and accurately portray that to clients. A wedding is one of the biggest days of your client’s life and unfortunately there are no re-shoots when it comes to a wedding day package. Be fair to your client and disclose your experience level accurately, then set your prices accordingly.

Determine Your Costs 

In a previous article we shared more about determining your monthly costs and breaking that down to a per shoot cost. As a wedding photographer you may have even more costs than a family photographer. A wedding photographer spends more time with a client than an average photographer and thus almost becomes part of the wedding party. Though this is not a complete list, here are a few of the costs that should be accounted for:

• photography templates and presets
• computer equipment
• office supplies
• camera equipment
• professional membership fees and subscriptions
• marketing and paid advertising
• business license
• website and hosting and software fees
• second photographer (backup photographer)
• a gift for the couple

Again, check out our previous article on pricing for a handy formula you can use to break these monthly costs down to per shoot costs.

Determine What’s Included In Your Package

Part of the challenge with pricing wedding packages is that so much more is included when compared to a typical family shoot. All of these “extras” should be accounted for when determining a wedding package price. 

• Multiple Shoot Locations: A bride may request a bridal shoot prior to the wedding or a couples engagement shoot prior to the big day. Additionally you may have a location for the wedding and an additional venue for a reception. Travel and transporting equipment should be considered. 
• Time: A typical wedding day shoot can run six hours or more. That is a significant time commitment and while a photographer can typically shoot multiple family sessions in a weekend, the time and energy required for a wedding means photographers can likely only handle one per weekend. 
• Editing: The sheer number of photos included in a wedding package means tons more photo editing before you can deliver the final product. 
• Second shooter: Some photographers prefer to hire their own second shooter or shoot assistant to assure all events and guests are included in the photo documentation of the day. A second shooter can help set a bride’s mind at ease, but it does come with a cost to the photographer. 
• Physical prints and albums: Do you include physical photos or an album in your package? Some photographers do and some don’t. The decision is yours, but it can be a great way to provide a little something extra and set yourself apart from the competition. 

All of these details go into the price of a photography wedding package! Once you sit down and calculate the time commitment, the costs and what you hope to make in profit, you should be able to get an idea of your typical shoot package price. 

Let’s tackle converting your package price into an hourly price. 

When you create your Zazzi photographer profile you are asked to enter an hourly rate. An hour is determined by the length of time you will be at the shoot, but the pricing structure should also account for all the extra time you will spend delivering the final product and all of the time spent on the included extras we discussed above.

When you set up your Zazzi profile within the app, you’ll have an opportunity to set your own rate but it can be confusing to set an hourly rate, when you are used to booking based on a complete package. To convert your shoot package into an hourly rate, calculate the average time you spend with a couple. Now divide the complete package price by the average number of hours you are shooting to get an hourly rate. When you are filling out your profile, you are asked to set the minimum shoot time required and you can adjust this minimum to whatever time frame a typical package takes.

Average Package Price ÷ Average Time Spent on a Complete Package = Hourly Rate

For instance, if you charge $1000 for a wedding package that includes 5 hours of shooting, your hourly rate would be $200 hour, but you would set a minimum session duration of 5 hours.

Bottom Line

These guidelines are just a starting point as you determine wedding package prices as a Zazzi photographer. Find the balance of what you’re able to offer with what the wedding couple wants and then be flexible in adapting pricing to meet those needs. There are always ways to adjust pricing without just lowering prices. Consider how concert pricing works. There is a standard price and then a VIP price that includes a whole bunch of extras, or the balcony price that is a bit lower because you are sacrificing some of the advantages of regular seating, You can do the same with your packages and add or remove services to change pricing.

Zazzi helps you keep your schedule booked and find new clients, but it is your style, talent and customer service that will make them lifelong customers.